The United Kingdom will explore the possibility of sending fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street office said Wednesday, adding it would only be a “long-term” solution.
“The prime minister has tasked the defence secretary with investigating what jets we might be able to give but, to be clear, this is a long-term solution rather than a short-term capability, which is what Ukraine needs most now,” Sunak’s spokesman said.
The announcement came shortly after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky met Sunak and urged UK politicians to send jets to his war-battered country during a visit to London.
Sunak’s office warned that training Ukraine pilots to use state-of-the-art British jets would be a long process.
“We are keen to do whatever is possible to get these pilots trained up as fast as possible,” said the spokesman.
“But these are complex pieces of military equipment and… the current training period for UK pilots is around five years,” he added.
